UC-NRLF 


O 


ketch  of  the  Life  of 
Charles  Balthazar 
Julien  Fevret  de  Saint- 
Memin  <£  &  <#  <#  & 


Issued  to  accompany  an  Exhibition  of 
his  Engraved  Portraits  at  the  Grolier 
Club,  March  9-25,  J899  .*  j»  j*  Jfi 


ketch  of  the  Life  of 
Charles  Balthazar 
Julien  Fevret  de  Saint- 
Memin  *$  <#  <&  &  <# 


Issued  to  accompany  an  Exhibition  of 
his  Engraved  Portraits  at  the  Grolier 
Club,  March  9-25,  J899  <*  j*  j*  j*  j* 


SAINT-MfiMIN. 

THE  remarkable  collection  of  portraits  here 
introduced  has  a  twofold  interest:  it  rep- 
resents a  noteworthy  portion  of  the  life-work  of 
a  talented  and  industrious  man,  and  forms  a 
highly  interesting  pictorial  record  of  notable 
figures  in  the  early  history  of  our  republic. 

Charles  Balthazar  Julien  Fevret  de  Saint- 
Memin  lived  a  long  and  honorable  life,  a  dozen 
years  of  which  sufficed  for  the  production  of 
about  800  of  these  "medallion  portraits,"  in 
which  the  lineaments  of  so  many  distinguished 
Americans  have  been  traced  and  preserved  for 
posterity.  Born  at  Dijon,  March  12,  1770, —  as 
the  son  of  Benigne  Charles  Fevret  de  Saint- 
Me"min,  counsellor  in  the  Parliament  of  Dijon, 
and  Victoire-Marie  de  Notmans,  a  St.  Domin- 
gan  creole  of  remarkable  beauty, —  he  was  pre- 


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4  SKETCH    OF   THE 

pared  for  the  military  profession.  On  April  i, 
1784,  he  entered  the  military  school  in  Paris, 
which  he  left  on  May  8th  of  the  following  year, 
icceivirig  the  grade  of  ensign  on  April  27,  1788. 
His  predilection  for  art  soon  asserted  itself,  as 
did  also  his  aptitude  for  the  mechanical  arts,  and 
he  busied  himself  much  with  drawing,  painting, 
watchmaking,  the  making  of  models  and  similar 
ingenious  practices, —  all  diversions  then,  but 
soon  to  become  a  valuable  resource.  Then  came 
the  Revolution,  and  in  1790  he  went  to  Switzer- 
land, whither  his  parents  and  sisters  followed 
him.  When  the  "Army  of  the  Princes"  was 
formed,  he  served  in  it  as  second-lieutenant  of 
infantry,  and  eventually  was  awarded  the  cross 
of  honor  as  a  lieutenant-colonel.  On  the  dis- 
banding of  the  army  he  returned  to  his  family 
at  Fribourg,  Switzerland,  where  he  practised 
carving  and  gilding. 

And  now  came  the  turning-point  in  his  career. 
In  March,  1793,  his  father  and  he  set  out  for  St. 
Domingo,  in  order  to  save  the  mother's  exten- 
sive estates  from  sequestration.  Reaching  New 
York  by  a  circuitous  route,  they  were  apprised 
of  the  unfortunate  state  of  affairs  in  St.  Domingo, 
and  rinding  the  product  of  the  cultivation  of  a 
little  garden  insufficient  to  eke  out  their  failing 
resources,  Saint-Me*min  began  turning  his  talents 
to  account.  A  friend  describes  his  first  efforts 


LIFE    OF   SAINT-MEMIN.  5 

thus :  "  The  Messrs,  de  Saint-Me'min  .  .  .  came 
to  live  with  us  in  a  charming  house  .  .  .  which 
overlooked  the  city.  They  enjoyed  a  superb 
view,  which  extended  on  one  side  over  the  whole 
harbor.  Charmed  with  the  beauty  of  the  land- 
scape, M.  de  Saint-Memin  made  an  accurate 
drawing  of  it.  At  that  time  there  was  no  other 
extant;  we  suggested  the  idea  of  engraving  and 
circulating  it.  I  introduced  him  myself  to  the 
public  library,  in  order  that  he  might  obtain 
from  an  Encyclopedia  a  knowledge  of  the  first 
principles  of  engraving.  He  made  himself  a 
perfect  master  of  it." 

Some  views  of  New  York  and  other  engrav- 
ings were  produced  by  our  newly  fledged  artist, 
who  then  prepared  to  introduce  in  this  country 
a  style  of  engraved  portraits  in  profile  which  had 
been  very  popular  in  Paris  (invented  by  Chr£- 
tien  in  1786,  we  are  told).  Ph.  Guignard,  in  his 
address  at  the  Academy  of  Dijon  (I853),1  says: 

"  To  construct  the  physionotrace  2  by  which 
the  portrait  was  to  be  drawn ;  the  pantograph 

1  Published  in  translation  in  "The  St.-Me"min  collec- 
tion of  portraits  ;  consisting  of  seven  hundred  and  sixty 
medallion  portraits,  principally  of  distinguished  Ameri- 
cans,  photographed  by  J.    Gurney  and    Son,   of  New 
York  .  .  .  New  York,  published  by  Elias  Dexter,  1862." 

2  This  instrument  served  to  produce  a  profile  in  out- 
line, which  was  then  filled  in, —  with  crayon  on  paper; 
with  the  engraving  tools  on  the  copper-plate. 


6  SKETCH    OF   THE 

by  which  the  portrait  was  to  be  reduced  to  the 
right  proportion;  these  were  not  for  him  the 
most  embarrassing  parts  of  the  subject :  it  was 
for  him  much  more  difficult  to  make  the  little 
roulettes  necessary  for  engraving  upon  copper 
the  reduced  drawings.  Having  little  else  than 
the  Encyclopedia  to  guide  him,1  M.  de  Saint- 
Memin  triumphed  over  all  obstacles.  Eventually 
making  the  roulettes  by  the  aid  of  a  machine 
of  his  own  invention,  he  perfected  the  manner 
and  surpassed  the  models  which  he  proposed  to 
imitate. 

"  Another  compatriot,  M.  de  Valdenuit,  joined 
him  in  the  beginning  of  his  enterprise,  .  .  .  and 
the  first  portraits  engraved  by  M.  de  Saint-M£min 
were  inscribed  with  the  names  of  both.  .  .  . 

"  A  portrait,  the  size  of  life,  in  black  crayon 
upon  tinted  paper,  framed,  the  copper-plate  and 
one  dozen  proofs  were,  together,  furnished  for 
thirty-three  dollars. 

"  That  which  at  first  required  two  weeks  to 
accomplish,  could  afterward  be  completed  in 
three  days,  so  greatly  had  M.  de  Saint- Me"  min 
been  able  to  abridge  the  labor  by  ingenious 
inventions." 

The  artist  preserved  two  sets  of  impressions 

1  According  to  Guignard,  Saint-Me'min  seems  to  have 
acquired  most  of  his  information  from  the  oft-mentioned 
"  Encyclopedia." 


LIFE   OF   SAINT-MEMIN.  J 

of  these  portraits,  writing  the  name  of  the  sub- 
ject over  each ;  one  set  is  in  the  Corcoran  Gal- 
lery, Washington,  the  other  is  exhibited  here. 
It  is  an  interesting  series  of  heads  which  he  has 
left  for  us :  characteristic  types  of  the  Americans 
who  worked  and  lived  in  the  days  when  the  re- 
public was  young ;  who  helped  to  develop  it  and 
build  it  up.  Many  classes  and  professions  are 
represented  in  the  list  of  those  who  sat  to  him : 
presidents,  statesmen,  judges,  lawyers,  military 
and  naval  officers,  physicians,  clergymen,  mer- 
chants, bankers,  artists,  editors,  apothecaries, 
planters  among  them. 

Various  localities  were  the  scene  of  his  activ- 
ity. Beginning  with  New  York,  in  deference 
to  local  interest,  we  have  among  his  subjects : 
Chancellor  Robert  R.  Livingston;  De  Witt 
Clinton  and  his  wife ;  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer, 
LL.  D.  (major-general,  lieutenant-governor,  and 
M.  C.);  Pierre  Van  Cortlandt,  M.  C.;  Archi- 
bald Bruce,  M.  D.;  Nicholas  De  Peyster,  Jr., 
and  Daniel  Ludlow,  merchants;  John  Navarre 
Macomb;  Wm.  Bache,  lawyer;  Killaen  K.  van 
Rensselaer;  Miss  Eliza  Livingston  (daughter  ot 
Judge  Brockholst  Livingston) ;  Mrs.  Livingston, 
nee  Sarah  Johnson  (wife  of  Philip  P.  Livingston); 
and  Schuyler  Livingston  and  his  wife  Eliza. 
Turning  to  the  other  States,  we  find  names  such 
as  those  of  Paul  Revere,  Josiah  Quincy,  and 


O  SKETCH    OF   THE 

Timothy  Pickering,  of  Massachusetts;  Major- 
General  Henry  Dearborn,  of  New  Hampshire; 
Theodore  Sedgwick,  of  Connecticut;  Oliver 
Hazard  Perry,  of  Rhode  Island ;  Elias  Boudinot, 
LL.  D.,  Aaron  Burr  and  his  daughter  Theo- 
dosia,  and  Capt.  James  Lawrence,  of  New  Jer- 
sey; A.  J.  Dallas,  Benjamin  Rush  (the  noted 
physician),  C.  W.  Peale  (the  artist),  and  Wm. 
Y.  Birch  (bookseller),  of  Pennsylvania;  Charles 
Carroll  of  Carrollton,  Commodore  Stephen 
Decatur,  George  Washington  Parke  Custis,  and 
Gen.  James  Wilkinson,  of  Maryland;  George 
Washington,  Thomas  Jefferson,  James  Madison, 
Wm.  Henry  Harrison,  Chief  Justice  John  Mar- 
shall, Bushrod  Washington,  Henry  Lee,  Meri- 
wether  Lewis,  and  William  Wirt,  of  Virginia. 

These  are  some  of  the  more  noted  names 
among  those  prominent  in  political,  professional 
or  social  life,  whom  our  artist  portrayed.  To 
these  are  added  a  number  of  Frenchmen,  Talley- 
rand and  the  famous  engineer  Marc  Isambard 
Brunei  among  them. 

In  1798  Mme.  de  Saint-Me"min  and  one  of 
her  daughters  came  to  America,  and  the  family 
removed  to  Burlington,  near  Philadelphia,  where 
the  ladies  established  a  boarding-school,  and 
where, in  the  same  year,Saint-M£min,  we  are  told, 
executed  the  last  portrait  of  Washington  taken 
from  life.  His  engraved  portraits  of  Washing- 


LIFE    OF    SAINT-MEMIN.  9 

ton,  by  the  way,  were  executed  in  a  much  smaller 
size  than  usual,  and  it  is  stated  that  they  were 
used  in  mourning-rings  and  breastpins  after 
Washington's  death.  Saint-Me*min,  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  profession,  visited  successively 
Baltimore,  Annapolis,  Washington  and  Rich- 
mond, and  found  time  also  to  execute  some 
landscape  views,  including  a  panorama  of  Nia- 
gara Falls.  A  camera  obscura,  constructed  by 
himself,  aided  him  in  such  work. 

Napoleon's  measures  in  favor  of  emigrants 
took  him  to  Paris  in  1810.  When  he  returned 
to  America  in  1812,  he  found  his  sight  too  much 
impaired  to  continue  engraving,  and  took  up 
oil-painting.  Finally,  in  1815,  he  returned,  with 
his  mother  and  sister,  definitively  to  France;  and 
so  great  was  his  joy  that  he  is  said  to  have 
broken  his  physionotrace,  as  though  to  blot  out 
all  remembrance  of  his  troubles.  On  the  27th 
of  July,  1817,  he  was  appointed  director  of  the 
Museum  of  Dijon,  for  which  position  he  was, 
by  his  tastes  and  knowledge,  well  fitted. 

Various  ingenious  inventions  emanated  from 
his  busy  brain  in  the  succeeding  years, —  a 
"  perspective  pantograph  "  (which,  from  hori- 
zontal and  vertical  projections,  produced  eleva- 
tions in  perspective),  a  canvas-stretching  device, 
movable  models,  etc. 

The  appreciation  of  his  compatriots  was  shown 


io  LIFE  OF  SAINT-ME'MIN. 

by  his  election  to  various  learned  societies,  and 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  who  removed  him  in 
1848,  found  it  expedient  to  rescind  his  order  in 
the  following  year. 

Saint-Me*min  is  described  as  modest, "  sweet  in 
disposition,  and  very  reflective ;  he  possessed  an 
extraordinary  aptitude  for  all  the  sciences,  a 
manipulation  remarkable,  and  a  perseverance 
beyond  question."  He  had  a  fondness  for 
mathematics,  and  his  natural  taste  for  precision 
accounts  for  the  exact  finish  in  his  work.  In 
1852,  on  the  23d  of  June,  he  died  at  the  age  of 
82,  the  last  male  descendant  of  a  noble  family, 
of  whom  P.  Oudin  said :  "  There  was  always 
that  particular  glory  common  to  the  Fevrets,  of 
seeming  to  be  born  for  the  ornament  of  letters 
and  the  good  of  their  country." 

F.  WEITENKAMPF. 


(laylord  Bros..  Inc. 

Stockton,  Calif. 
T.M.  Reg.  U.S.  Pat.  Off. 


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